Disparities in health access, use, care, and outcomes continue to affect people of color and other underserved populations in the United States. One strategy for reducing healthcare disparities is improving health organizations’ cultural competency since culturally competent organizations, and their services, can have a powerful impact on increasing the equity of care. Community Science received a Phase 2 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities to develop and test an innovative product that would assess and strengthen organizations’ cultural competency. The product, which we named Journeystart, was unique in that it assesses organizational cultural competency through a systems and community lens. Specifically, it examined 1) three dimensions relevant to cultural competency: policies and practices, staff attitudes and behaviors, and relationships with other organizations that serve the same populations; and 2) in six areas, from leadership to accessibility of services. Journeystart included computerized assessments, action planning tool kits, and dashboards with visual analytics to help users understand and monitor their cultural competency. The product would have enabled organizations to establish a system and engage in a continuous process of personalized feedback and comparative analysis to ensure that all the people they serve have equal access to healthcare. Nine organizations were part of our pilot-testing of Journeystart. We learned three major lessons including 1) organizations continued to struggle with understanding and incorporating a lens that incorporates the social determinants of health into their healthcare strategies; 2) leadership and staff of organizations frequently had different understandings about their policies and practices that reflect cultural competency; and 3) the business case for cultural competency was still lacking, making it difficult to convince organizations that cultural competency should be a priority. 00533